Retailers often receive disassembled bicycles requiring assembly by an employee before being sold. Assembling bicycles involves many complicated steps unknown to the unskilled employee or the layperson. Detailed adjustments and fine-tuning are necessary for proper functioning of the bicycle, such as alignment of parts, orientation of the front wheel, fork, and stem, and proper bolt torque. As a result, unskilled assemblers may employ excessive and undesirable “guesswork.” Often, bicycles assembled by unskilled employees have their front wheels and/or their forks installed backwards. If proper torque is not achieved, the handlebar and fork may rotate freely and/or disconnect unintentionally. Assuming it is usable in the first place, an improperly-assembled bicycle may be uncomfortable to ride, may suffer decreased performance, and may experience undue wear or premature component failure. The assembly processes thus require tedious attention, and even a few seconds of extra time required during assembly of each bicycle add up to substantially increase costs and reduce the number of bicycles a retailer is otherwise able to assemble and sell. Difficulty in the process of assembling also means employees require more training to be able to assist in assembling bicycles. Further, typical bicycles are shipped by the manufacturer with the front wheel removed, front brake at least partly disassembled, and the handlebar removed. This adds steps required to put together the bicycle, and more potential sources of error in assembly.
What is needed is a system that reduces and simplifies the steps involved in assembling bicycles to shorten assembly times. A system that provides automatic tensioning of bearings and automatic alignment and orientation of the stem relative to the front wheel and fork can reduce error rates, extend the life of bicycles, enhance performance, and potentially reduce the risk of certain failures.